Gas purification in the dense phase at the CATS terminal
The purification and transportation of natural gas at very high pressures can help to minimize the capital cost of pipelines and processing equipment. However, complex mixtures of hydrocarbons undergo unusual phase changes, such as retrograde condensation, as the temperature and pressure are altered. The Central Area Transmission System (CATS) is a joint venture of Amoci, BG, Amerada Hess, Phillips, Agip and Fina operated by Amoco on behalf of the owners. The design of the CATS terminal has provided an interesting processing challenge. The terminal receives a total of 1.6 Bscf/d of rich gas from a number of offshore fields. All are relatively sweet but the small amounts of H{sub 2}S and Hg are removed. Fixed bed technology was selected as the most economic purification process, while minimizing hydrocarbon loss and operator involvement. Conventionally, the raw gas would be split into the different hydrocarbon fractions and each would be processed separately. This would require the installation of a large number of reactors. A more elegant solution is to treat the gas on arrival at the terminal in the dense phase. This option raised questions around whether a fixed bed would be prone to fouling, could the pressure drop be kept low enough to avoid phase separation and would inadvertent wetting by condensation cause problems. Details are given of the test work carried out to prove the viability of using fixed bed technology for dense phase gas processing, the eventual design adopted and the performance over the first year of service.
- Research Organization:
- Synetix, Billingham (GB)
- OSTI ID:
- 20000912
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-990331-
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Gas Processors Association Seventy-Eighth Annual Convention, Nashville, TN (US), 03/01/1999--03/03/1999; Other Information: PBD: 1999; Related Information: In: Gas Processors Association seventy-eighth annual convention, proceedings, 393 pages.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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